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BMW Sauber
Brands Hatch was originally the name of a natural grassy hollow that was shaped like a amphitheatre. Although the site was originally used as a military training ground, the fields belonging to Brands Farm were first used as a circuit by a group of Gravesend cyclists led by Ron Argent, with the permission of the local farmer and landowner, Harry White. Using the natural contours of the land, many cyclists from around London practised, raced and ran time trials on the dirt roads carved out by farm machinery. The first actual race on the circuit was held in 1926, over 4 miles between cyclists and cross-country runners. Within a few years, motorcyclists were using the circuit, laying out a three-quarter-mile anti-clockwise track in the valley. They also saw the advantage of competing in a natural arena just a few hundred yards from the A20, and with the passage of time a kidney-shaped circuit came into use. The first motorcycle races were "very informal" with much of the organisation being done on the spot. Initially the racing was on a straight strip approximately where Cooper Straight came to be when the track was tarmacked. Brands Hatch remained in operation during the 1930s, but after being used as a military vehicle park and being subject to many bombing raids during World War II, it needed much work before it could become a professional racing circuit. In 1932, four local motorcycling clubs joined forces and staged their first meeting that March. Motorcycle racing quickly resumed after World War II, and in 1947, Joe Francis persuaded the BBC to televise a grass track meeting, the first motorcycle event to be televised on British TV. Cinders were laid on the track of what was by then known as Brands Hatch Stadium and motorcycle racing continued following World War II. That was until 1950 when the 500 Club managed to persuade Joe Francis that the future for his stadium lay in car and motorcycle road racing. The group behind 500 cc single-seater racing cars was the 500 Club and it, together with the owners, invested the sum of £17,000 on a tarmac surface. Thus, Brands Hatch was born as a motor racing venue, and on 16th April 1950, the opening meeting was scheduled for the first purpose-built post-war racing circuit in England, approval having been given by the RAC following a demonstration by a handful of 500s in February. Amongst those giving the demonstration was a very young Stirling Moss. The Half-Litre Car Club for 500 cc Formula 3 organized that first race on 16th April with 7,000 spectators coming to witness these cars complete in 10 races. The first victory went to a man who was to become a legend in Formula 3, Don Parker. Before the year was out, five meetings had been held, with the events running to a similar programme. The August Bank Holiday meeting saw for the first time, involvement of the national press with the Daily Telegraph sponsoring the main event of the day. The old cinder track had been 0.75 miles in length, but the tarmac circuit was lengthened to 1 mile and now ran anticlockwise. The Maidstone & Mid-Kent Motor Club invited a number of sports car drivers to test the circuit on 5 November, this being the first time that any car other than a 500cc had used it, and they ran clockwise. The 1951 season included seven car meetings, all for Formula 3 and they were again organized the Half-Litre Car Club, to which the 500 Club had changed its name since becoming a Limited Company. In February, the Aston Martin Owners Club tested some 1.5-litre sports cars at Brands Hatch preparatory to the full International season starting. The 1952 season saw the emergence of Stuart Lewis-Evans, and Les Leston raised the lap record to 71.15 mph – the first time that 70 mph had been exceeded. For 1953, Brands Hatch saw the introductions of raised spectator protection banks. This was to be Parker's year for he won the Autosport Formula 3 Championship taking seven races at Brands on his way to the title. Some 50,000 people packed into the Daily Telegraph International and as the season came to an end Parker raised the lap record to 74.38 mph. During 1953, the Universal Motor Racing Club was established with a racing school set up at Brands Hatch. The Half Litre Club, later to become the British Racing and Sports Car Club, ran many races throughout the 1950s and firmly established the venue as one of Britain's top racing circuits. The track continued to expand during 1953 and 1954 with the addition of Druids Bend and spectator banks and reversing the racing direction to clockwise. While Formula 3 racing was unquestionably close and exciting it did have its limitations and now the paying public wanted some variety and more powerful cars to watch. The change in direction of racing traffic resulted in the creation of Paddock Hill Bend a fast sweeping downhill right-hander. At the bottom the Paddock Hill a quarter-mile extension to the circuit was added which took the competitors up the other side of the valley to a right-hand hairpin which is called Druids Hill Bend. This new section re-joined the old track at another tricky corner, Bottom Bend, and the result was a circuit lengthened to 1.24 miles. The first race winner on the revised track was Stuart Lewis-Evans with a new name at the inaugural meeting. That name was N. G. Hill who was a 'graduate' of the racing school. As the season progressed larger engine machines began to appear starting with small and medium capacity sport cars, then Formula Libre machines. Most races were still run for Formula 3 and 1954 saw the first of what was to become the traditional Boxing Day meeting down in Kent. A total of 15,000 spectators arrived at the Christmas meeting to watch a programme of seven races with the added attraction of ox-roasting and Stirling Moss. It was Jim Russell’s year, for he dominated Formula 3, winning the Autosport National Championship. Cooper T39s and Lotus Mk9s dominated sports car racing while Archie Scott Brown had a stranglehold on the over 1,900 cc class, driving either the works Lister-Bristol or Louis Manduca’s Jaguar C-Type. At the August Bank Holiday meeting spectators could avail themselves of the only permanent grandstand at a British motor sport circuit; it had been purchased second-hand from the defunct Northolt pony-trotting stadium and for the 1956 season, a telephone system was installed linking race control, the grandstand and the marshals’ posts while a modern hospital was opened at the circuit, complete with operating theatre. As larger-capacity cars become more common 500 cc racing began to decline but the formula still gave close, exciting racing. The first year that public car race meeting were organized by other than the BRSCC was 1956 – in June, the 750 Motor Club joined forces with the Club Lotus to offer a mixture of races, including, for the first time at Brands, saloon cars. This was also the year the Brands grew up, running Formula One racing cars for the first time on 14th October. Initially, a long-distance race was planned, but in the end a 15-lap race was run which attracted four work entries from Connaught opposed by privately entered Maserati 250Fs driven by Roy Salvadori and Bruce Halford and a selection of independents. Archie won from Lewis-Evans, with Salvadori setting a new lap record in the process at a speed of 75.66 mph. Politics caused the cancellation of the Boxing Day meeting that year because of the Suez Crisis. As a result of Suez affair forecasts for 1957 were gloomy but the programme ran as planned with the two feature meetings of the year being run for the new Formula Two on Whit Sunday and August Bank Holiday. The year saw a continued diversification at BRSCC meetings with fewer 500 cc events and more sport-racing machinery. The Kentish 100 was the biggest event yet run at the circuit for Formula Two with two 42-lap heats and attracted a truly International field. Formula Two featured at other meetings but at the August Bank Holiday meeting Formula 3 proved that it was not yet dead as it was run as the feature event for the Kentish 100. Jim Clark made his Brands Hatch debut at the Boxing Day event when he drove the Border Reivers-entered Lotus Elite into second place behind Colin Chapman. At the August Bank Holiday meeting in 1958, an 1100 cc sports car became the first to lap Brands Hatch in under a minute. Its creator had been unable to afford to purchase a Lotus, so had designed his own car; the car was called a Lola and its creator was Eric Broadley. The highlight of the 1959 season was again the Kentish 100, with no less than 40 drivers fighting for just 16 grid positions. Jack Brabham won both 42-lap heats driving the works Cooper-Climax. The feature race at the Boxing Day meeting was for Formula Junior which was a new International Formula for single-seater racing cars using production engines up to 1100 cc; works entries were received from Gemini. This formula was to prove the death-knell of 500 cc racing. In January 1960, Kent County Council gave planning permission for the extension of Brands Hatch – an extension which would double the length of the track offering a choice of long or short circuits. The new 2.65-mile track used, all of this existing one with the extension of 1 bend. South Bank became a long, uphill 160° sweep out into the country and making the approach to Clearways very much faster. From South Bank there followed a long straight dipping into and out of the next valley to the right-hand Hawthorn Bend followed by Portobello Straight to Westfield Bend leading to the dip to Dingle Dell, Dingle Dell Corner and the difficult left-hand Stirling's Bend. A short straight then brought the circuit back to Clearways at much higher speed than hitherto. John Hall said, "For the first time ever, Britain will have a Grand Prix track within 20 miles of London." The new track was planned to be completed in time for the August Bank Holiday meeting and was ready for testing in June. The debut of the new track came in August as planned, with work entries from Ferrari and Lotus together with independents such as Scuderia Eugenio Castellotti and Scuderia Centro Sud. Record traffic jams were reported on the A20 and the resultant huge crowd saw the non-championship Silver City Trophy Formula One race which was won by Jack Brabham in the works Cooper-Climax win by just 4.4 seconds from Graham Hill in the BRM P48, after the gearbox of Clark's Lotus expired after leading 22 laps of the 50-lap race. The fastest lap was set jointly by Clark and Brabham, in 1 min 40.6sec at a speed of 94.82 mph. Clark had his revenge a few weeks later when the circuit saw Formula Two cars performing in the Kentish 100 with a hard-fought win over Dan Gurney; both were driving Lotus-Climaxes. Clark's was a works car and Gurney's a private entry. Soon after, the track was sold to Grovewood Securities Ltd and John Webb put in charge of Motor Circuit Developments to manage the circuit. 1977 was a quiet year with James Hunt retaining his Race of Champions crown for McLaren. The event was not held in 1978, but this was a Grand Prix year. It was also a year to remember for it was also Indy year. Controversy again loomed at the Grand Prix, but trouble was averted because Niki Lauda had won the Swedish Grand Prix driving the Brabham BT46B ‘fan car’ but the car was banned by the FIA before it arrived in Kent. Despite this, Lauda still finished second in the conventional Brabham-Alfa Romeo BT46, behind the Ferrari 312T3 of Carlos Reutemann with the other Brabham of John Watson in third. Fourth went to Patrick Depailler in a Tyrrell-Cosworth 008, with Hans-Joachim Stuck fifth in a Shadow-Cosworth DN9 and Patrick Tambay sixth in a McLaren-Cosworth M26. It was a non-Grand Prix year at Brands in 1983 but the Marlboro Daily Mail Race of Champions was successfully staged on 10th April and notwithstanding the fact that it was only a week before the French Grand Prix and clashed with a tyre test at Paul Ricard. It was also the last non-championship F1 race to be held in the sport's history. It was won by the reigning world champion Keke Rosberg in the Williams FW08, who narrowly beat Danny Sullivan in his Tyrrell. Meanwhile, former world champion Alan Jones finished third in his last drive for Arrows. To bring some real excitement, noise and spectacle back into British motor racing, the BRSCC invented Thundersports. The new series had its debut on Easter Monday and the country's first major sport car race since the mid-1970s was a resounding success. Then, the year turned into a Grand Prix one after all; following the cancellation of the proposed New York Grand Prix John Webb lobbied FISA in company with the RAC MSA and was granted the opportunity to run the Grand Prix d’Europe on 25th September, thus giving Britain its second Grand Prix that season. In 1984, Brands become the first British circuit to hold a Grand Prix in three consecutive years since the 1950s. This was officially the year for Kent to host the British Grand Prix but it was fraught with politics as Tyrrell was adjudged by the governing body to have infringed the rules at the Canadian Grand Prix and was excluded from the remainder of the season. A court injunction ensured that the cars started their home race, but Stefan Bellof and Stefan Johansson qualified the cars on the back row of the grid, the former finishing 11th but Johansson being eliminated in a first-lap accident. The win went to Lauda, driving a McLaren-TAG MP4/2. Second was Derek Warwick in the Renault RE50 and Ayrton Senna driving the Toleman-Hart TG184 into third place. Lauda's winning speed was 124.382 mph. 1984 saw the return of the European Formula Two Championship, the first visit since Jochen Rindt's win in 1967, which was also the last ever race for this category. 23rd September turned out to be very wet because of the original race lasting only 16 laps being stopped due to heavy rain. The next 31 laps were run later in the day, with Philippe Streiff in an AGS-BMW winning on aggregate from the Martini-BMW of Michel Ferté and Roberto Moreno in a Ralt-Honda, and after Octagon failed to obtain the necessary planning permission and subsequent leasing of the British Grand Prix to Silverstone this left Brands Hatch without any top-line single-seater racing. High-profile single-seater did return in 2003 when the London Champ Car Trophy was held at the circuit. Despite attracting around 40,000 spectators to see Sébastien Bourdais win, the race was not retained for subsequent seasons. If there were at least 3 memorable races in the 1984 Formula One season, the subsequent race after Detroit was surely the second because Formula One racing moved 1,000 miles south to a whole new location in the United States which was the Dallas Grand Prix at the Fair Park circuit in Dallas in Texas. This race effectively replaced the United States Grand Prix West in Long Beach in California which was held in April and was taken over by CART IndyCar racing. This race had already been controversial for inexplicably being held in the intense 100°F average heat and humidity of a Texas July summer and there were week-long rumours of its cancellation. Although the organization by Carroll Shelby and the circuit layout was praised and the reception of Dallas welcoming and friendly, the expectedly intense heat effectively ruined any future the event may have had to begin with. The concrete-wall lined circuit, located in a city district containing the Cotton Bowl 5 miles outside of the center of Dallas measured what is possibly the highest track temperature ever recorded during a Grand Prix: 150°F. As a result, such extreme temperatures combined with the tire and aerodynamic adhesion meant that the track almost completely disintegrated. The break up was so bad that the only parts of the track that weren't covered with gravel were tire tracks left on the racing line. As a result, it was not only incredibly slippery, but extremely bumpy. It was then decided to start the Dallas Grand Prix at 11:00 instead of the traditional time of 2:00 in a attempt to avoid the heat which was 104°F that day. Nigel Mansell put his nimble Lotus on pole position, and his teammate de Angelis alongside him in second. Martin Brundle yet again crashed severely and injured his ankles; he did not take part in the race. Come race day, there was a TransAm support race that left Fair Park in a total mess with huge holes in the track scattered everywhere. Shelby and the organizers were able to briefly fix these holes barely 45 minutes after the race was due to start, with Prost and Lauda leading protests to cancel the race. But the race got underway and it proved to be a incredibly exciting and memorable race. As expected, the track broke up so badly that the cars had to line up behind each other even when right near each other to avoid the strewn gravel which would cause the cars to go on top of it and slip and slide and crash at the tight and extremely demanding circuit. Mansell held off a challenge from Warwick who got onto the marbles and crashed into a tire barrier, and also challenges from de Angelis, Prost, Lauda and Rosberg. Piquet was also catching this group and Arnoux passed several cars and was also closing on the leading group. Rosberg, who was running 2nd, then forced Mansell into a mistake and took the lead. Mansell had to go into the pits because of problems with his car. Prost took the lead from Rosberg but eight laps later he clipped the wall and damaged his back right wheel. Rosberg, in his ill-handling Williams-Honda, took advantage of Prost's mistake and re-passed the Frenchman. Piquet hit the wall, and then retired because of a jammed accelerator pedal. There were consistent retirements throughout the entire race, with Rosberg going on to win ahead of Arnoux and de Angelis in what was almost certainly one of the most difficult and extreme Grands Prix ever staged. The attrition rate was incredibly high, only one more finisher than Detroit. Mansell suffered gearbox failure right before the finish and decided to push his broken Lotus across the line in the searing Dallas heat in his black overalls. While doing this, he collapsed and fainted because of exhaustion. 32 years after Nigel Mansell collapsed and fainted because of exhaustion at the 1984 Dallas Grand Prix, Reagan Farmer started making final preparations for 2017 by uploading videos that involved Adolf Hitler on New Year's Eve. The day saw Svidden & Jarly go dark after just 1 year of uploading videos, which was rumoured for some time. 2015 saw the YouTuber upload a movie relating to Jerry Bruckheimer Films which had 744 views. This video was followed by a video where Adolf Hitler calls the Professional Edition of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000, and 5 days later Svidden & Jarly uploaded Telephone. Telephone features Hyacinth Bouquet making a phone call relating to the Chinese takeaway, to which Thomas the Tank Engine gets her into trouble. Besides the success of Jerry Bruckheimer Films on 21st August Svidden & Jarly uploaded a Jules Bianchi tribute 2 days later. The tribute was 4 minutes 16 seconds long, and 1 day later Svidden & Jarly began its tradition of narrating its videos when it uploaded a 5-year plan video. This was followed by Reagan Farmer's 5-Year Plan. 4 months later Svidden & Jarly uploaded its second 5-year plan video which talked about the closure of Heathrow Terminal 3 in 2019. At the end of March, Svidden & Jarly uploaded Reagan Farmer's Third 5-Year Plan. April saw Svidden & Jarly add 5-month plan videos which involved the YouTuber narrating what will happen in the next 5 months. The first of these videos saw the introduction of the narrator from So You Think You'd Survive telling Svidden & Jarly to buckle up. 2 days later Svidden & Jarly uploaded the first of six top 10 videos. The first video saw the debut of the #10-1 spots for the first time when it was uploaded on 4th April 2016, with Preston North End at #2 and Manchester Victoria at #3. The Bentley Mulsanne was also included in the video but was mentioned as the Mulsanne Speed instead of the Mulsanne from 7th December 2014 because of the controversial design that had been spotted when it was first uploaded. The Mulsanne returned at the end of December 2016 and had a facelift with what Bentley describes as a fresh and modern look and new chassis technology to deliver what is claimed to be the world’s most refined ride Category:BMW Sauber